What a difference a week makes!

Behold! The first flying cars!
Not these, they are only actors.

In my previous blog of Sunday 20th October, I wrote that I had been daydreaming about flying cars, but that no-one had succeeded in developing one to date, and that I was certain that there would not be a flying car in my lifetime. Well, today, one week later, I am eating my words.

The headline read: "After 80 years on the drawing board, finally success!" That is enough to make me go into culture shock. It seems that the Boston based firm of Terrafugia has spent the past six years engaging all of the finest minds and approximately $10 million to bring to reality the first real flying car. They have completed preliminary testing of a two-seater, with four wheels that will attain a top speed of 70 mph, and will fly at 1,500 feet. Wow! That takes my breath away.

It has received provisional approval from the FAA, and barring any unforseen obstacles could be ready for sale in 2015, although the first generation will likely have a hefty price tag. If we have to ask we can't afford it.

This model will need an airport, so it will be driven like any normal car, only with folded wings, and at the airport the wings are opened and up you go. It is called the Transition and gets 35 miles to the gallon on the highway, and 20 in the air.

Already, a new model is in the works, called the TF-X, a four-seater electric power drive that will be a vertical take off and land system. No airport necessary! It will also employ an Autofly system that will fly itself and have inbuilt crash avoidence guidence.

I now believe that all things are possible in my life time. I should have learned my lesson with the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of Apartheid.

Copyright (c) 2013  Eugene Carmichael  

Flying cars in the Future?

One grounded vision of the future

Often while driving along familiar routes our minds go blank, or we turn to fantasy. I had such an episode recently when I turned to the future of driving. We have seen those fabulous movie scenes where travel by car is off the ground. The Sound and Light studios have developed some incredible visions for us, but will they ever become reality, and if so, why?

I principally drive around Valencia, Spain, a very modern city, but I was trying to visualize cars and trucks moving at streetlight heights off the ground, and how would that work? Firstly, there is the problem of not having mastered safely driving on the ground. For instance, when traffic comes to a roundabout all drivers wear an expression that says, "Now what do I do?"

Travel off the ground by car cannot envision simply going in any direction that comes to mind. We have that now, which is why we also have so many pile ups. For instance, where we have six or eight lanes of traffic, what could the driver be thinking when he is on the far left and cuts across all lanes to get to the far right? (I'm not making this up. It actually does happen.)

• So, if not free choice there will have to be ground control electronic guide rails and stop/go controls. The operative word is control, and that is what is missing from present day motoring. By giving the motorist the freedom to choose these are some of the things he chooses to do:
• He will not signal his intentions. You have to read his mind because he believes its against the law to signal. Students of the "Big Ideas" program are looking into something they call Search/Alert Communicative Turn Signal system that would help the driver with signalling. It would also help in merging.
• Merging is important because at the moment, should I be in the middle lane I can expect cars to overtake me in the right hand lane. Yes, that's illegal in the country, and its also deadly.
• Drivers who are at stop lights often move off while the light is on red. The light is about to turn to green, however, due to a lack of patience our man prematurely makes his move. On the other side the other man really doesn't want to stop and wait until he gets the green, so more often than not these two geniuses meet by accident. They have to be saved from themselves.

I could go on at length, but if we are going to have to build all these controls on the ground so as to allow air travel, why bother? I think we will see ever more sophisticated types of vehicles for ground travel. Small cars for city travel will get even smaller and lighter, and run by battery. Technology will advance to have cars drive themselves on implanted grids, but the idea of cars floating around in mid-air is not likely in anybody's lifetime, and that includes those still in the womb.

Stay tuned!

 

Copyright (c) 2013   Eugene Carmichael

A Perfect Day is a very Fragile Thing Indeed!

A day for a perfect drive!

Sunday, October 13th, 2013 is one for the record books. It has been a truly perfect day in so many ways. My wife and I arose early, for a Sunday to attend a morning concert n Valencia City. The weather was bright, dry, with a breeze that felt soft to the skin. Temperatures would rise to 30 degrees, but that soft breeze kept the sun in a kind mood.

We left the house and drove out onto the "B" roads that then led us to the "A" roads. Traffic was very light, and what there was went about its business in a reasoned manner. There was a time when you coud not venture out onto the highway without encountering someone with manure for brains. Today, all my fellow drivers were considerate, as I was to them.

Best of all was the vast majority of traffic lights were green, just for us. We arrived at the Music Palace in time to park and get seated just in time before the start to give ourselves five minutes to relax. I will describe the concert as being O.K. It was a fundraiser for charitable work being undertaken in Rwanda, a country that can use all the help it can get. There were parts of the concert that were pleasing, so I will leave it at that.

Following the concert we paid a visit to a new friend, and we then made our way home via a different route. Still, traffic was light and driving was very pleasent.

We took our lunch on our terrace in a nice leisurely style, and following that I read from my new book, "I am Malala!"

And then I fell fast asleep. So wonderful!

A perfect day is like fine cut crystal, prone to shatter by the least little thing. They happen very rarely so when they do we tend to enjoy them all that much more.

Life is so wonderful at times!

Copyright (c) 2013   Eugene Carmichael

Speed Limit to increase to 130kph in Spain

I don't know, and neither does anyone else!

The present speed limit throughout Spain is 120kph. Not such a long time ago the limit was reduced to 110kph on the logic that the country needed to conserve fuel and to make our roads safer. When the limit was lowered many people drove at 130kph. Then, it was decided that 110kph was too slow, so the limit was restored to 120, and people still drove at 130. I always wondered whether it was decided that the country didn't really need to save fuel, and safer was too boring. That's possible because ours is a nation that plays with raging bulls and gunpowder.

Now, in certain stretches of roadway the limit will be increased to 130, such as they do in France. But people being people, they will drive at 140 because there seems to be something in the DNA about being disciplined and observing the law.

It would be interesting to hear the thinking behind this move. It just may be some kind of pyschology that says if we are all really good and we stick to the lower limits, we will be rewarded by being able to legally drive at a faster rate in certain stretches of roads. It might be seen as a kind of safety valve to let off some of the steam. Germany has its autobhan with no limits in certain sections, and the aforesaid France with 130 in places, so perhaps there is a kind of cool method to the madness.

However, Spain is tightening the screws on other things in anticipation of the higher limits, especially driving while intoxicated, something I thought would never change. I have been scared sober because of the crackdown, drinking only alcohol-free beer if I have to drive. In so far as speed is concerned, I am a retired person with no place to get to in a hurry, so I will continue soberly driving at my steady 100kph while the world passes me by. I'm so good! (Pat on  back.)

That works for me in my Volvo.



Copyright (c) 2013    Eugene Carmichael